1. Technical Field
This disclosure generally relates to content management systems, and more specifically relates to a content management system that allows bursting multiple elements in a single object.
2. Background Art
A content management system (CMS) allows many users to efficiently share electronic content such as text, audio files, video files, pictures, graphics, etc. Content management systems typically control access to content in a repository. A user may generate content, and when the content is checked into the repository, the content is checked by the CMS to make sure the content conforms to predefined rules. A user may also check out content from the repository, or link to content in the repository while generating content. The rules in a CMS assure that content to be checked in or linked to meets desired criteria specified in the rules.
Known content management systems check their rules when content is being checked in. If the rule is satisfied, the content is checked into the repository. If the rule is not satisfied, the content is not checked into the repository. Known content management systems may include rules related to bursting, synchronization and linking. Bursting rules govern how a document is bursted, or broken into individual chunks, when the document is checked into the repository. By bursting a document into chunks, the individual chunks may be potentially reused later by a different author. Synchronization rules govern synchronization between content and metadata related to the content. For example, a synchronization rule may specify that whenever a specified CMS attribute is changed, a particular piece of XML in the content should be automatically updated with that attribute's value. Linking rules govern what content in a repository a user may link to in a document that will be subsequently checked into the repository.
Bursting rules allow an element in a document to be saved as an object in the CMS so the element may be reused by other authors. Known bursting rules only work on a single element, and only work on the boundaries of a single element. Thus, if three different elements in a document need to be bursted, each of the three will be bursted to its own object in the CMS, and each element in the document will be replaced by a link to the object in the CMS.
Sometimes neighboring elements in a document are often used together. If an author specifies to burst two neighboring elements in the prior art, each of the two elements is individually bursted to their own respective objects. When these two elements are to be reused in a new document, the author must specify both elements in the new document. This is inefficient when the two elements are always used together. Without a way to burst multiple elements to a single object in a CMS, the reusability of content in the CMS will impaired.